Balkan reflections: a recording of percussion music inspired by the Tambura tradition of Southeast Europe

The tambura or tamburitza are a family of long-necked, fretted string instruments which originated in their modern form in eastern Croatia and the Serbian province of Vojvodina. Over the past 150 years, these instruments have become an important part of the culture of Serbia and Croatia and proliferate both in their ancestral homelands as well as in Balkan ethnic communities in the United States.

I was raised in one such community and learned to play the tambura as part of my cultural education at St. George Serbian Orthodox Church in Joliet, Illinois. This thesis represents an attempt to bridge this aspect of my Serbian-American upbringing with my training as a professional percussionist.

The recordings accompanying this document are a set of seven original percussion arrangements of music inspired by the tambura tradition. The pieces included in this project are primarily Balkan folk music that I originally learned to play on the tambura. I’ve also included a novelty piece, Tamburitza Boogie, and a medley of music from the motion picture Doctor Zhivago (1965), which utilizes tambura prominently in the score. These arrangements are not direct transcriptions but instead seek to recontextualize and expand upon the source music with influences from classical music, jazz and other improvised idioms, and American popular music.

Through this project I hope to bring the tambura to greater public awareness and demonstrate the viability of Eastern European folk song for reinterpretation through the medium of percussion.